Talking-machine horn



.l. WOLFF.

TALKING MACHINE HORN.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 19. 1919.

Patemm m 27,1921;

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH WOLFE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0 SONORA. PHONOGRAPH CORPORATION, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK. I

TALKING-'MAGHINE HORN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 27, 1921.

Application filed March 19', 1919. Serial No. 283,537.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH WOLFE, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, and residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings, city and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Talking-Machine Horn, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain improvements in talking machine horns constructed of laminated material as hereinafter spectfied. This application is a division in part of my copending application filed April 28, 1915, and numbered serially 24,450 (series of 1915).

I have discovered that with the ordinary wood horns for talking machines, the sound waves penetrate the wood to a considerable degree, their force and color are more or less lost, and that because of such absorption,

relatively thin tones are produced with the consequent tendency to rattle on high notes and produce audible needle scratch. When producing great volume the scratch increases with the volume, part of the tone is absorbed by the wood, and the scratch is apparently magnified. 1

l have found that by increasing the number of laminations of a veneer horn above three, the number commonly employed, to a greater number, with the grain of each ad- ]oining layer running in opposite directions, a greater volume of tone with more force and warmth is produced, but with less audible needle scratch than is possible with horns of three laminations, for the reason that the tone is all projected through the mouth of the horn and thus the scratch is not magnified by any increased horn area but remains relatively the same, and the greater volume and force of tone which is projected from the mouth of the horn drowns or smothers it, and this proportion of scratch to volume is always the same, even with varied volumes produced by the use of different toned needles.

l likewise have discovered that by coating the outside of my improved horn with a material, such as silicate of soda, improved result is obtained. This is probably due to the fact that such sound. waves as penetrate the material of the horn are re flected back.

I have also found that with a horn of plural construction, the inner wall of which will absorb some of the sound, and an outer I wall, which will be to reflect the sound, a much better quality of sound will result than with the horns now in use.-

The object of my invention therefore is to produce a horn by means ,of which the scratch of the needle ismade inaudible and i by which richer and more natural tones are produced, and blasting and rattling Vibrations are entirely eliminated on high tones.

These and further objects will more fully appear in the following specification and accompanying drawings considered together or separately.

My invention is illustrated in the drawings, and described in the specification, in which corresponding parts in all the figures are designated by similar reference charac ters. I

In the drawin y Figure '1 is a orizontal section of a talle mg machine cabinet showing a horn in position;

Fig. 2 is asectional view, on an enlarged scale, through a corner of one wall of the born; I

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a portion of a wall of a horn;

Fig. dis a detail edge view, on a very much enlarged scale,'of a portion of a wall of a horn showing a modification;

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view of a horn showing another modification;

Fig. 6 is a perspective detail of another modification.

in all of the above views similar reference characters designate corresponding parts'in all of the figures. I

In the drawings, 1 designates a talking machine cabinet of any well known form. Within the cabinet is located a horn or diffuser, 2. The cabinet shown is of the type known as the hornless, that is,onein which the horn is built in the cabinet and concealed from View. The horn is of generally rectangillar cross section, and is builtup of wall pieces 3, each composed of veneering.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 1,2, and 3 the walls are built up of five laminae or layers 4:, 5, 6, Y and The layers are arranged in such a manner that grain of each layer will run in a different direction frcni' of the next adjoining layer, and the layers are firmly secured to l I gluing.

posed of a wood veneer, but it will be understood that other substances may be employed.

In Fig. 4 I have shown a modification of my invention in which eleven veneers are employed. The top and bottom layers are preferably of wood, and alternate layers may be of rubber, fiber, or any other suitable material, or all of the layers may be of wood. The wall, including the exposed ends of the layer, is coated as at 13 with a hard non-porous material such as silicate of soda.

In Fig. 5 I have shown an enlarged sectional view of a horn wherein five layers of veneering are employed. The exposed ends of the layers are covered by a bindin 12 and the horn is given a coating of silicate of soda. The binding 12 may be and is preferably applied to the inner or small end of the horn and to the outer or bell end thereof.

In Fig. 6 I have shown what I now consider the preferred embodiment of my invention. The walls of the horn are composed of nine layers of wood veneering. In each layer the grain of the wood runs in a direction at an angle to that of the adjoining layers. I prefer to build the horn of layers having the grain of alternate layers running at right angles to the grain of the other layers. The layers may all be of the same wood, or they may be of different woods.

To the free ends of the horn both back and front are applied a strip 14 of laminated wood. This strip is preferably glued in place and it may be of'the same material and the same number of layers as the body of the horn, or it may be different material and have a different number of layers, or it may be composed of a binding strip similar to the binding strip 12. If desired such strips 14 or 12 may be dispensed with. The horn may be coated as before. A

I desire it to be understood that I do not wish to limit myself to any particular material used in the construction of my improved device, nor do I desire to limit myself to the exact number of layers to be employed above three. The walls may be made of any ultimate thickness and veneer of any degree of thinness may be employed.

In operation, the sound waves set up by the vibrations of the diaphragm of the reproducer, will traverse the horn from the ack or small end to the flaring front and be projected into the atmosphere. Practically all of the sound will reach the outlet for the reasonthat the inner thin layer will be the only one which will absorb any considerable amount of sound which will nearly all be reflected by the next layer. The small amount of sound absorbed by the second layer will be turned back by the third, and so.on to the outside. The more layers in the walls, up to the point where the walls become so thick and heavy as to be unresponsive to the sound vibrations, the better will be the result.

In accordance with the provisions of the Patent Statute, I have described the prince ples of my invention, together with the apparatus which 1 now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof, but I desire to have it understood that the invention described in the drawings is merely illustrative, and that the invention may be carried out in other ways without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. A talking machine horn or resonator, comprising walls of more than three layers of fibrous material and a coating of nonfibrous material.

2. A talking machine horn or resonator, comprising walls consisting of more than three layers of wood, the grain of adjoining layers being arranged at right angles to each other, and a coating of non-fibrous material.

3. A talking machine horn or resonator, comprising walls consisting of more than three layers of wood, the grain of adjoining layers being arranged at' right angles to each other, and a coating of silicate of soda.

4. A talking machine horn or resonator, comprising walls consisting of more than three layers of wood, the grain of adjoining layers being arranged at right angles to each other, and covering secured to the edges of the layers.

5. A talking machine horn or resonator, comprising walls of more than five layers of fibrous material and a coating of nonfibrous material.

This specification signed and witnessed this 28th day of February, 1919.

JOSEPH WOLFF.

Witnesses:

E. WOLF, L. Jones. 

